JoJa Cola
by nakedpie
Summary: The power of JoJa cola bringing two losers together is stronger than anybody thinks.


**Been playing this game recently, logged about 90 hours since my birthday last week, and fell in love with Shane. I wish he were a little more nerdy and a little less college football failure but here we are in year three and married with one kid. Some of the things he says reminds me of my boyfriend if we're being honest. (The pizza roll dialogue to be more specific and also the alcoholism plus sadness. :c )**

 **I'm not too fond of this characterization of Shane just being over the top piece of shit asshole. Then, oh wow, farmer is a shitty person with a sailor mouth too. _Oooooo_ , so original. So they go together so perfectly? /Barfs.**

 **Probably porn in it later but I like romance that's full of tension and sad feelings for a long time so...**

* * *

This season had been the most disastrous time of year for the "farmer", if she could even call herself that, because she had a measly eight hundred gold to her name and hardly enough food to scrape by. The pitiful excuse for a farmer sported naturally sea foam green hair that she divided into two low hanging pigtails on her chest and bright blue eyes to offset the color. She didn't wear conventional rancher clothing but rather beat up shirts worn to bed when she lived as a wage slave in the city. Her jeans and shorts started out as bright colors, sometimes even white, but eventually turned to a grimy grey with funky a assortment of stains from mud and grass.

She was settled in now and had spoken to most of the villagers, they were all friendly enough, but she hadn't exactly made any real friends. Her social life was like that even in ZuZu and she knew it was her own personal shortcomings that prevented her from making life lasting bonds with other humans. It was maybe the middle of spring of her first year here and she had sold all of her belongings for a measly five hundred gold. That gold was spent too quickly too.  
She's glad the land and house were paid off twenty years ago. She had no way of paying off a mortgage; she could hardly afford rent at her apartment in her _old_ life. The next few days after she settled herself in revolved around selling lumber and stones to the local carpenter, her name escaped her, and selling wild fruits she found near trees southwest of her farm. She barely raked in that extra three hundred needed to pay Marnie for a chicken when she was asked if she even had a coop!

Mitzi bowed her head in shame and blushed a deep red while kicking at some pebbles she tracked in. Marnie simply smiled at her and told her how it would be possible for her to acquire one. Mitzi inwardly groaned because _all that wood_ she'd been selling to Robin could've been used to make her coop! She felt duped by these townspeople somehow and left without even saying 'thanks'. She was in a new place, didn't know how things worked around here, and nobody would really help her. (But that's because she never really asked for help, rather simply expected it.)

So now she was off to Robin's, only to find out it'd cost her a whopping four thousand gold. Days later this took her to where she is now, her sulking quietly as she makes her way to the mines east of Robin's house. Maybe she'd strike it rich with some rare gems so she could live the rest of her life work and worry free. That's why she left JoJa Call Center in the dust; no more working for nothing. This country life was too hard for a spoiled punk like herself, if she had to be honest.  
Bouncing a rock in her palm, she briefly considered throwing the stone at a window but caught herself from darkening in her growing embitterment.  
She opted to travel behind the female carpenter's house and spotted a large yellow tent near a campfire up ahead. An old man with white hair and a scraggly beard looked up from poking at his fire and hurried inside his tent upon seeing her.

She had never seen this man before and jogged lightly to his tent flap. She peered in but a scared, timid voice called out to her first.

"There is nothing for you here."

Mitzi backed away from the tent, "I never introduced myself..."

"If you aren't here to abuse an old man then why do you have that stone in your hand?" he asked suspiciously.

Looking down she gasped lightly, forgetting the existence of the stone in her hand, then threw it to the side in a hurry.  
"I picked it up because..." she paused for a moment and he shifted in his tent warily, "I'm mad at myself and I needed something to keep me occupied. I was using it transfer my anger; that's what my grandfather taught me anyway."

There was a long pause and she almost stood up because crouching was _killing_ her knees.

" _Henry was a good man_ ," he said solemnly.

She tensed suddenly at the mention of his name, she had nearly forgotten it, because she'd only ever called him Grandpa.  
"He _was_ ," she agreed.

"I'm coming out."

He crawled from the tent. The smell wafting up from him was worse but she only smiled at him. Smiling because she was glad to have met someone other than the duo in town, who thought nobody knew about their midnight trysts, that knew her Grandfather.  
Some rotting logs were a small ways down the hill from his home and Mitzi dragged them to use as seating.  
She was excited to say the least. Her Grandfather was really the only family she could trust and ever felt genuine love from.

Taking a good look at him in the sunlight she noticed his clothes were woven from dried leaves and that his hair wasn't as knotted as it seemed at first glance, just wild. "I don't trust you yet _but_ the granddaughter of Henry must not be so bad."

She laughed at his honesty and a confused smile made its way to his face.  
"I'm guessing neither one of us have laughed like this in a long time." Linus stared at her, surely into her soul, for a long while but finally nodded his head at her.

"I'm Linus," he stated calmly.

"Mitzi. Only grandchild to Henry and so the last of his legacy, " she joked darkly.

"I have reason to believe that you'll find love here," he stated knowingly.

She rolled her eyes but giggled.

* * *

The mood changed suddenly and Linus looked serious, "Why're you so upset with yourself? All this wilderness is soothing to the soul."

Mitzi felt relief at finally being able to vent her frustrations. So the young adult droned on about how broke she was, not even pausing in the face of this homeless man living in a tent, and how nothing was working out for her.  
When she was finished Linus seemed to be deep in thought and she quickly became self aware.

"I'm so sorry! I'm complaining about my financial situation and here you are.." she trailed off slowly.

His laugh was hearty this time and his brown eyes twinkled, "This," he motioned to his tent and then to the vast wilderness around him, "This I made for myself. I love it out here. It really cleanses a man."  
The farmer's cheeks grew warm but when he leaned forward she felt a certain calmness wash over her.  
"Mother Nature has a plethora of food to offer to you. If you care for her then she cares for you. There are ripe pink berries right now, named after being paired with salmon dinners by indigenous peoples, that you pick right now."

He made his way behind a tree and shook a bush, catching countless pink berries in the basket resting near it. She followed him to stand under the shade of the old oak tree, amazed that this man found a food source from absolutely nowhere.

"You still have that city folk mentality," he explained.  
It wasn't an insult, he wasn't shaming her, just stating a simple fact and informing her that her thought processes needed to change.  
"If you want to live a life like your grandfather then you need to get past depending on going to the store to buy all of your food. Become completely self sufficient. Open your eyes."

Tears welled up in thankful blue eyes and she lunged towards the dirty yet wise senior, hugging him tightly. He patted her back awkwardly and she let go upon smelling him once again.  
"Thank you," she said in a hushed tone.

* * *

Over the next few weeks Linus shared his knowledge of crafts and living off the land. First, she learned to craft large barrels to age mountain vegetable into pickles and to also make jams from the fresh berries she picked off bushes on the outskirts of town. The demand for artisan goods from this small town was very high for a place like ZuZu. A man at a farmer's market set up in the city bought a majority of her goods every week. She had to thank hipsters for the faux interest in the environment and small businesses. They were what kept her business afloat this past week. Linus then taught her about the benefits of fertilizer and properly tilling soil and ridding it of weeds. She invested over half her earnings into seeds next and followed Linus' heavenly advice.

Through hard work and dedication, failures or success, she endured and watched the gold roll in. She had more than enough for a coop and several chickens by the beginning of the summer season. She brought Linus some of her bounty, an extra harvest of green beans or potatoes, but he would never accept gold from her. She made that mistake once already. When Mitzi had saved up enough for a barn and some sheep she vowed to sew him new bedding. He needed less to worry about during the colder season.

Robin was working on her farm now, hammering away on thick oak boards so she could set up a nice foundation. Mitzi offered the woman some homemade blueberry melon juice and counted this as her first attempt to make friends with someone other than Linus.  
"I don't think I ever thanked you for all the wood you sold to us. You really helped me out of a shortage and saved me some time from chopping down trees. I had been spending thrice the price importing the same type of wood on your farm so my business and inspiration had been drier than usual. Thank you."

Mitzi was paid so she didn't exactly understand what Robin was getting at but she nodded shyly, guilty for ever secretly accusing this woman of duping her.  
"No problem. I really just needed the gold after giving up my entire livelihood. It was hard when I first came here," she admitted.

"We all noticed," Robin replied. "We learned our lesson, you could say, about talking to city folk after the last one." Her tone was light but serious.

Mitzi lifted a colored eyebrow in question.

"Shane," Robin explained simply, wiping some sweat from her forehead with the sleeve of her flannel. Mitzi thought she looked a little toasty but came to learn that occasionally long sleeved shirts worked out better in the summer time too.

"Ah" was all she could muster.  
She remembered him, sure. An exceptionally quiet man she saw making his way to the saloon every night. He left the path from town leading to Marnie's ranch reeking of alcohol whenever she passed him in the evenings.

"Emily is the only one to get him to say more than a few words at a time but she's friends with everyone in town."  
Being so deeply lost in her work she started to wonder if the two of them were compared often.

The ice clinked in the glass as the redhead finished that last bit with a loud gulp.  
"I appreciated that, it tasted crisp!"

* * *

A few days later Mitzi made her way to Marnie's ranch with a new batch of sweet fruit jam and freshly baked bread. Extra pride welled in her today since all of this was made from wheat or fruits grown on her farm. She owed the woman an apology for her ignorance and being so self absorbed, failing to see the woman was just trying to make a living in this small town too.  
The whole town's policy seemed to be, 'just come on in everyone's family here', and so she did.  
The bell above the door chimed loudly, how did she miss that the last time, but no chubby yet smiling face was waiting for her at the counter. She waited patiently for a few minutes but it was so quiet that she started to feel anxious. Anxiety quickly made her feel like she made a really dumb mistake. Turning to face the door she almost made her way out until she heard someones cussing under their breath and using what sounded like a microwave.

 _Beep beep beep. Slam!_

' _Definitely a microwave,_ ' she thought to herself.  
She peered around the wall dividing the kitchen and shop room to find a black haired man in a tattered hoodie and shorts.  
"Hello?" she called out sheepishly. Whoever it was wasn't recognizable to her at this angle. He had to have lived here with Marnie, right?

The man stiffened then tapped his foot impatiently as if he were trying to ignore the person behind him, "Hurry up and cook already. Or just defrost. I don't care anymore."  
This was lost to the woman but he mumbled incoherently under his breath some more.  
She took a few more steps into the kitchen, feeling like she was invading someone's space, especially since Marnie wasn't here, and set the goods on the table.

The man, who she recognized as Shane, snapped his head around immediately to see what she was up to. His face softened when he saw what she was setting down on the table. He looked confused when she approached him, wiping her sweaty hand on her hip, and stuck it out for him to shake.  
He looked different than in the saloon, she noticed, he looked _much_ more haggard and old. Shane was always hidden from her in the darkness from what she observed of him. He looked sadder and less likely to not fall apart without the dim lights and loud music playing from the jukebox to distract everyone from their small town problems.  
His grip was awkward, equally sweaty, and tight. She smiled at him and introduced herself more properly.

"Why're you talking to me? I hardly know you." He wasn't particularly cold but he wasn't exactly welcoming. His voice was pathetic and she could tell how lonely he was. He was like Marnie except she hid it better.

 _'There are too many unhappy people in this town_. ' she thought.  
"I was rude to Marnie when she tried to help me and I owe her an apology. Can you let her know I dropped these off?" Mitzi walked back to the table and lifted up the checkered cloth on the tightly woven basket carrying her homemade goods to sniff the still warm bread.

Shane followed her. The man's breath smelled like he brushed his teeth with a bottle of rum. He probably did.  
The way he stared at her unnerved her. He licked his lips and spoke slowly, "What is it?" Whatever was in that small basket smelled enticing. It smelled better than the freezer burnt pizza "cooking" in the microwave.

She took a few steps back and stuttered out, "S-some bread and jam I made." He seemed a little impressed but let out a soft hum. "Thank you for looking out for my aunt."  
Then it clicked and she remembered the rancher telling her once that Shane and Jas came to live with her.  
She had endless questions but could only muster a slow nod, he looked at her so intently, and she waved a to him abruptly.

"She leaves on Tuesdays to go exercise with the other old ladies in town at Pierre's," he called out before she was completely out the door.  
She pretended she couldn't hear him, the quicker she left the better, and the microwave dinged as the door closed behind her.

"Bone apple tea," Shane joked to himself.


End file.
